Security researchers have discovered a technique for reliably detecting the presence and nationality of a nearby e-passport.
Most newly issued passports carry an embedded RFID containing digitally signed biometric information. Access to this chip is wireless, which introduces a security risk, the possibility that an attacker …

Some mistake surely?

Puh-lease

Detect the nationality of a passport from a range of 25cm? Wow. When I was last at an airport (not T5 thank goodness), I used my eyes and successfully decoded the non-encrypted national emblem on the front of half a dozen passports belonging to people in various queues at a range of far greater than 25cm. And I wasn't even trying hard.

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Re: such as broadcasting a person's private details

Well then it would mean no RFID, where would the fun and profit come from. RFID is so cool we should put it in everything. Combine RFID with IPv6 and have RFID readers everywhere then you have a proper fully connected world. Google Earth you could zoom in to someones passport or shopping basket or home webcam. Imagine that.

American Passports...

IOW, they're really even more shit than ours. I bet the shielding was an afterthought, when someone realised there were no "safeguards" for the RFID.

If passports have any form of passive indirect communication, they should be both shielded *and* use encrypted communication.

I really can't see a significant advantage in using "contactless" technology for an item that is expected to be handled by an official, where the option to swipe or otherwise connect the passport to a reader exists.